I hate this group, they are all s**t, i just wanna coach the good ones who can play
 

that was a quote from one of my colleagues, sometime around 2004 when i was a football coach. its a few years back now so it may not be exact, but it was words to that effect. it was quite common for coaches to think like that and i have to admit it was waaay easier to coach the kids who were pretty good
 
Now, when i say easier, i mean they picked up new things faster
 
i dont wanna blow my own trumpet, infact, wait….. yes i do 🙂 i was pretty good at coaching the players who were not so good, parents would often come up and say, you are so good with the kids, i just put it down to patience and the fact i was am, a big kid myself
 
a conversation i had with one of the other coaches whom i had a lot of respect for, made it clear in my mind why i didnt get frustrated like so many of the other coaches and it has stuck with me since
 
we were talking about a young coach getting frustrated and what Marshall said to me was one of those ah-ha moments
 

ewan, its all about your level of expectation, when you are coaching a group of good players and then you coach a group that arent so good, you have to adapt and understand that the group that arent so good wont be able to do as much, if you expect a kid to be able to do 10 keepie ups and he can only do 2 you will get frustrated but if you expect him to fall on his face, you will be ecstatic when he does 2 🙂
 

i remember passing on the advice to an up and coming coach who was working on some passing drills. he had the good kids passing the ball to each other through 2 cones but he was getting frustrated when the younger kids couldnt do it. I told him to shift his expectation of the kids being able to pass the ball between 2 cones to just being able to kick it properly…
 
…and as if by magic, as he taught them to kick it properly, he started to see success 🙂

so this dude signs up into a business opportunity, there is 4 entry levels, $400, $2000, $10,000 and $20,000…
 
he starts at the $400 level, all fired up and he says to me…
 

ima give it 3 months, and if im not makin $10,000/month then  im gone
 

he actually did better than most people do when they first start a biz but sure enough he quit
 
its a story i have seen time and time again, expectation levels leading to frustration and disappointment and thanks to Marshall’s little piece of advice, i understand why and can avoid making the same mistakes both in my own projects and when im working with others
 
walk before you can run homie, saves a whole loada frustration 🙂
 
over and out
ewan
more good stuff like this can be found in the YaghiLabs Academy